In the Walker

By A BONVS OF VALVES JOSEPH c. DEY, JR. USGA Executive Director IN THE WALKER CUP • Walker Cup Match when played in A Great Britain, once every four years, has values beyond the immediate event, Walker Cup Personnel - so far as the American visitors are con- cerned. The record book will show a 9-3 victory for the United States in this or What's in a Name? year's Match, but it cannot reflect the full meaning of the occasion, especially for the four young college students who E. Harvie Ward, Jr., has many attri- were making the trip for the first time. butes in golf, and one seems to be his This Walker Cup Match was played at ability to find nicknames for his friends. Muirfield, east of Edinburgh. To visit Here are his appellations for the 1959 there is to have a sort of spiritual re- American Walker Cup Team: newal in the fine things of golf. To play Captain Charles Coe-Wyatt Earp. before 8,000 spectators there is to learn Thomas D. Aaron-Cottonmouth. how truly appreciative and well-man- Deane R. Beman-Bee Bee Eyes. nered a golf gallery can be, for all of William Hyndman, III-The Praying those 8,000 play and know golf keenly Mantis. and they applaud the stroke rather than Jack Nicklaus-Snow White. the stroke-maker or his country. William J. Patton-White Lightning Just to be at Muirfield is to breathe (with reference to his backswing). the atmosphere of historical golf, for Dr. Frank M. Taylor, Jr.-Bulldog Muirfield is the home of the Honourable Drummond. Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and the H. Ward Wettlaufer-Babyfat. Honourable Company is the oldest golf E. Harvie Ward, Jr.-E. Mickey Mouse, club in the world, with a recorded his- the Playing Pro from Disneyland. tory dating to 1744. They played then on the links at Leith, moved to Mussel- burgh in 1836, and finally located at been kind to other Americans-to Jess Muirfield in 1891. (Golf has been played Sweetser when he became the first at St. Andrews more than 400 years, but American to win the British Amateur in the Royal and Ancient Golf Club is J 926, and to Walter Hagen in his victory younger than the Honourable Company for the 1929 British Open. But our Curtis by about ten years.) Cup ladies lost there in 1952, and Big Bill To play Muirfield is to have your game Campbell was the defeated finalist in the examined by perhaps as fine and fair a 1954 British Amateur at Muirfield. test of golf as exists anywhere in the A Walker Cup Match overseas is also world. It is a truly great course, laid over an occasion for exchange of views be- pure linksland near the Firth of Forth, tween representatives of golf's legislative though there are no water hazards; it has bodies, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club wonderful, close-cropped turf, beautiful of St. Andrews and the United States putting greens, tight bunkering with Golf Association. There is warm friend- brown sand, exceedingly heavy rough, ship between them, and since they both and length enough in its 6,806 yards. approach their responsibilities from the When the wind sweeps over the links- simple standpoint of what is best for land, as it usually does, Muirfield can be golf, their conferences are meaningful. an ever-changing test, but it was un- Finally, a Walker Cup match abroad usually quiet and balmy and kind to the can weave another strand in the fabric of Americans last month. Muirfield has friendship among nations. Our affinity 8 USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: JUNE, 1959 BRITISH WALKER CUP TEAM Members of the British Walker Cup Team which was defeated by the United States, at Muirfield, Scotland, are, seated from the left: Arthur H. Perowne, Joseph B. Carr, Gerald H. Micklem, Captain, R. Reid Jack, Guy B. Wolstenholme; standing from the left: Douglas N. Sewall, Alec E. Shepperson, Michael F. Bonnallack, Michael S. R. Lunt, David M. Marsh, W. Dickson Smith. with Britain needs little reassurance, but the 36th green, and America won five of every meeting of friends is a good thing, those six. and the Walker Cup Match is a meeting Despite the British loss, there were of friends. Our nearness in time was obviously good results from the develop pointed up recently when John Beck, ment program undertaken in recent years former British team Captain, played nine by Gerald Micklem, the team Captain; holes at Berkshire, near London, in the Raymond Oppenheimer, Tony Duncan, morning and 15 holes at Piping Rock on Mortie Dykes and others of the RandA Long Island the same afternoon, thanks Selection Committee. They had brought to a jet-powered airplane. along a team which had actually defeated a strong side of British professionals. In Series of Close Matches all quarters the British were thought to This was the seventeenth match for the have skill enough to score their first vic Walker Cup, presented by the late George tory since 1938. It very nearly turned out Herbert Walker, former USGA President; that way, and Messrs. Micklem, Oppen it produced the sixteenth American vic heimer and their colleagues are to be ap tory. The final score, 9-3, was not an ac plauded. curate mirror of the closeness, for six of But the United States has its own the twelve matches went to the 35th or development program in the form of USGA JOURNAL AND TURF MANAGEMENT: JUNE, 1959 9 junior competition, and it bore abundant 'Yard Wettlaufer and Jack Nicklaus, fruit at Muirfield. Four of our nine. came through by 2 and 1 over two Bri. players are college students who have Ush youngsters, Michael Lunt and Alec come up through the USGA Junior Ama- Shepperson. teur Championship and other events for 5 to 3 in the Singles boys. Three of the "Whiz Kids" won in It is a tribute to the Scottish affection singles. They helped account for two of for fine golf that the .second day's play, our foursome points. (The Match com- in singles, drew another huge gallery prises four foursome.s and eight singles.) even though the British were trailing, It had been expected that the Ameri- 4 to O. They were well rewarded. can youngsters might be at a disadvantage Much of the day was gray, with a thin, in the windy, moist weather expected at chill mist off the sea (the Scots call it a Muirfield, for the low-flying, run-up game haar). The Britons, at home in this i& normally the game to play there. But weather, took three of the eight singles, the weather was mild, on the whole; including two of the top three matches. further, Charlie Coe was not our Captain The national Champions met in the No. for nothing. He helped gear his team of 1 match, Charlie Coe vs. Joe Carr, and five veterans and four youngsters so well the delightful Irishman won by 2 and 1, that they were fit and ready technically for his first Walker Cup singles victory and mentally. They had to be so when since 1951. Coe did not strike his stride six of the twelve matches went at least until the turn in the morning, and by as far as the 35th and we won five of that time he was 5 down. He retrieved those six. four holes in the next nine, but Carr was The ability to finish the game strongly not to be denied in the afternoon. Carr's has long been a characteristic of Ameri- putter was broken when a spectator step- can amateur golfers, and it was so at ped on it at the 11th hole in the after- Muirfield. Their firm play on and around noon. He could have replaced it, but pre- the greens helped swing the scales in ferred to putt with a No.3 iron, as he their favor. used to do. Americans Sweep Foursomes Next came Harvie Ward, and he was Foursomes golf is an every-day game held to 2 up in the morning by Guy in Scotland but a rarity in the United \Volstenholme. Ward's putter could do no States. Most Americans think a foursome wrong in the afternoon, and he went out is a four-ball match, rather than the alter- in 33 for an 8-up lead which promptly nate-stroke style which it is. turned into a 9 and 8 victory. Foursomes is the best form of team Reid Jack, former British Champion, golf. It is a tribute to the team spirit squared accounts for a 1957 defeat by developed by Captain Coe, and to his turning back Billy Joe Patton, 5 and 3. acumen in pairings, that the foursomes His third nine of 34 was decisive. at Muirfield sent his side into an over- Billy Hyndman evened the singles for powering lead. They swept all four America, leading practically all the way matches the first day. against Douglas Sewell, who succumb~d Harvie Ward holed a long putt for a by 4 and 3, but not until a splendId birdie 3 on the 36th green to give him third-nine struggle in which both players and Dr. Frank Taylor a point against did 33. Reid Jack and Douglas Sewell. Next The four remaning singles were e~- came William Hyndman, a veteran, and trusted by Captain Coe to his four "\VhIZ Tommy Aaron, a freshman, with a similar Kids," and three of them came through. I-up victory over Joe Carr, the British Tommy Aaron just failed against young Amateur Champion, and big Guy Wol- Alec Shepperson of Britain, who won .bY stenholme.

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